As described in MSN Encarta.
Born in 1942, Jerome John Garcia in San Francisco, named after Jerome David Kern, his father's favorite composer. His father Joe had been a professional jazz clarinetist and led a Dixieland-style band in the 1930s. At the age of four Garcia lost the middle finger of his right hand in a wood-chopping accident.

The following year, on a camping trip, Joe Garcia drowned while his five-year-old son watched helplessly from shore. Following his father’s death, Garcia lived with his grandparents. His mother bought him an accordion for his 15th birthday, he persuaded her to return it so he could take the cash to a pawnshop and buy his first electric guitar.

As a teenager, Garcia flunked many of his classes and experimented with marijuana. He joined the United States Army in 1959 but was dishonorably discharged after nine months.

He experimented with LSD and finally formed the Grateful dead Band by 1965-66 through a series of evolutions and experiments with sounds which combined the influences of country-and-western, the blues, jazz, and rhythm-and-blues.

Tanzania Postage stamp; Barry Z Levine Photo

Jerry Garcia

The most popular member of the Grateful Dead, Jerry was its lead guitarist
and its spiritual leader. He appeared in the Woodstock film holding a joint saying "Marijuna Exhibit A."

The Grateful Dead was famous for its live performances with legions of fans who camped out for days to buy tickets. Nicknamed Deadheads, these fans followed the band about the country. The sold-out concerts documented the fashions, attitudes, and communal ideals of the 1960s.

The Grateful Dead

The Woodstock Festival performance was plagued by technical problems in the heavy rains of Saturday night whereby faulty electrical grounds caused Garcia and Weir to be shocked each time they touched their guitars. They called it their worst performance ever and it was excluded from the film. Audio and bootleg footage has been circulated among its fans. Hear some of the performance.

By performing numerous live shows to large and faithful audiences over a 30-year period, the Grateful Dead became the highest-grossing live band in the history of rock music, though only one of its many albums ( In the Dark, 1987) hit the top 10 charts.